The present invention relates to a supporting device for an outboard motor.
There is known a supporting device for an outboard motor in which an outboard motor bracket for mounting an outboard motor is movably and rotatably supported to a stern bracket which is fixedly mounted to a transom of a hull on the rear face thereof, thus tilting an outboard motor up (see JP-A 62-139792 and JP-A 1-101295, for example).
The outboard motor should fill various requirements in addition to possibility of its tilt-up during anchorage: Possibility of kick-up operation upon collision with an obstacle such as a driftwood during navigation, possibility of improvement in velocity performance by adjusting a trim angle of a propeller axis with respect to a keel of the hull in accordance with a navigation form, and possibility of reverse lock to prevent a backward rotation of the outboard motor due to backward thrust upon sternway.
The known supporting device for an outboard motor cannot cope with all the requirements, however. Particularly, with regard to the trim angle, a trim cylinder for special use should be arranged to adjust a value of trim angle, or a movable locus of the outboard motor should be altered to obtain a predetermined value of trim angle. Additionally, with regard to the reverse lock, a reverse lock mechanism including a reverse hook and a lock pin as disclosed, for example, in JP 52-128291 and JP-A 60-33195 is difficult to use without constituting an obstacle to lift operation of the outboard motor.